Onslow County Schools presents proposed 2025–26 local current expense budget, emphasizes staffing and operating costs
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Summary
Superintendent Dr. Barnes and staff detailed a local current expense fund recommendation driven by rising personnel, benefit and utility costs, the addition of Woodland Elementary, and growing charter school pass-through payments; board set a public hearing ahead of the May 15 county deadline.
Superintendent Dr. Barnes on Thursday presented his first annual recommended local current expense budget to the Onslow County Board of Education, asking the board to consider a proposal that officials said is driven largely by salary and benefit increases, higher utility and insurance costs, and the opening of Woodland Elementary for the 2025–26 school year.
The proposed local current expense budget, the portion of the district budget that covers items not fully funded by state or federal sources, was framed by Dr. Barnes as a document to sustain operations and address six priorities the district identified: effective instruction, continuous improvement, building internal capacity, parent and community support, innovation opportunities and safe, secure learning environments.
"This is my first annual budget proposal," Dr. Barnes told the board, noting the document reflects input from executive staff, principals and departments. Staff members walked trustees through a 14-page summary ("pie chart") and a more detailed line-by-line document staff said board members could use to follow allotments down to salary and benefit components.
Why it matters: Onslow officials emphasized the budget keeps staffing whole while responding to rising fixed costs. Mr. Holloman, who led the budget walkthrough, said the district expects modest salary increases, a roughly 3% rise in retirement contribution rates and about a 5% increase in hospitalization insurance costs. Those changes, combined with utility and property/vehicle insurance rate increases and the expense of bringing Woodland Elementary online, form the main upward pressure on the local fund.
The presentation broke local current expense spending into major categories: instructional services and systemwide support services account for the majority, with instructional services further broken down into curricular services, career/technical education and special populations. Staff pointed to assistant principals as a commonly underfunded but critical area. Dr. Barnes noted the district subsidizes assistant principal positions locally because state allotments often do not fund an assistant principal at every school.
Charter school passthroughs: Staff said state changes and enrollment shifts have increased the amount the district must forward to charter schools. A board exchange on statutes that once capped pass-throughs noted the statutory cap was removed and that the district is now apportioning a per-pupil local share that has risen with local per-pupil spending.
Safety, staffing and program details: Questions from board members and staff covered school resource officer coverage, student monitors and an elementary alternative-to-suspension pilot. Staff said traditional elementary, middle and high schools in the district have SRO coverage; the central office building does not. The proposed local budget supports one student monitor per elementary school and staff said the district would like to expand that but is constrained by personnel costs.
On alternatives to suspension, staff described a short-term program planned at Clatterwood Elementary that would provide two rooms (K–2 and grades 3–5) to house suspended students for short stays with instructional support and require parental cooperation; principals districtwide would be able to use the program subject to availability.
Technology and AI pilots: The district continues to pilot AI tools for staff and students. Staff said the district has purchased licenses for CoPilot and a platform identified in the presentation as "Magic School," and that feature-level controls allow teachers to determine whether and how students access AI on assignments; pilots are currently focused on high schools.
Finances and schedule: Staff said the county appropriation for the local current expense fund is projected at about $80,200,000, and that the board plans a public hearing the following Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., ahead of a regular meeting where the board will be asked to approve a budget for submission to the county by the May 15 statutory deadline. Staff also said the district keeps a designated disaster recovery fund, cited at roughly $14,000,000 in the presentation.
Board reaction: Trustees asked for clarifications on assistant principal counts (staff said approximately 27 assistant principals funded locally in the proposed budget), student monitors (one per elementary site in local funds, about 23 next year), and whether there are any districtwide staff reductions (staff said there are no planned districtwide cuts tied to this proposal; staffing changes can still occur school-by-school as enrollment fluctuates). Trustees also pressed staff for future updates on AI pilots and the alternative-to-suspension plan.
Next steps: The board scheduled the public hearing and a regular meeting to consider adopting the local current expense budget for submission to county officials by May 15; county commissioners are then expected to adopt a county budget by July 1. No formal vote to adopt the budget occurred at the workshop presentation.
